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<h2>tabular</h2>



<pre>

 \begin{tabular}[pos]{cols}

 column 1 entry & column 2 entry ... & column n entry \\

 ...

 ...

 \end{tabular}

</pre>


<p>or</p>



<pre>

 \begin{tabular*}{width}[pos]{cols}

 column 1 entry & column 2 entry ... & column n entry \\

 ...

 ...

 \end{tabular*}

</pre>


<p>Note that the *-form takes an additional <tt>width</tt>

    mandatory argument which specifies the width of the tabular

    environment; in the regular form the width is determined by

    LaTeX from the contents of the tabular environment.</p>


<p>These environments produce a box consisting of a sequence

    of rows of items, aligned vertically in columns. The

    mandatory and optional arguments consist of:</p>


<ul>

    <li><tt>cols</tt> Specifies the column formatting. It

        consists of a sequence of the following specifiers, at

        least one for each of the columns.

        <ul>

            <li><tt>l</tt> - A column of left-aligned items.</li>

            <li><tt>r</tt> - A column of right-aligned items.</li>

            <li><tt>c</tt> - A column of centered items.</li>

            <li><tt>p{wd}</tt> - Produces a column which can be multiple lines,

                with each item typeset in a parbox

                of width wd. It works as if each item were the argument of a

                <tt><a href="ltx-294.html">\parbox[t]{wd}</a></tt>

                command. However, a

                <tt><a href="ltx-181.html">\\</a></tt>

                may not appear in the item, except in

                the following situations: (i) inside an environment like

                minipage, array, or tabular, (ii) inside an explicit <tt>\parbox,</tt>

                or (iii) in the scope of a

                <tt><a href="ltx-30.html">\centering</a></tt>,

                <tt><a href="ltx-300.html">\raggedleft</a></tt>, or

                <tt><a href="ltx-301.html">\raggedright</a></tt>

                declaration. The latter declarations must appear

                inside braces or an environment when used in a <tt>p</tt>-column

                element.

            <li><tt>|</tt> - A vertical line the full height and depth

                of the environment.
            </li>

            <li><tt>@{text}</tt> - This inserts <tt>text</tt> in every

                row. An @-expression suppresses the intercolumn space

                normally inserted between columns; any desired space

                between the inserted text and the adjacent items must be

                included in <tt>text</tt>. To force the spacing between

                two columns to be <tt>wdth</tt>, use an

                <tt>@{\hspace{wdth}}</tt> between the column specifiers.

                An <tt>\extracolsep{wd}</tt> command in an @-expression

                causes an extra space of width <tt>wd</tt> to appear to

                the left of all subsequent columns, until countermanded by

                another <tt>\extracolsep</tt> command. Unlike ordinary

                intercolumn space, this extra space is not suppressed by an

                @-expression. An <tt>\extracolsep</tt> command can be used

                only in an @-expression in the <tt>cols</tt> argument.
            </li>

            <li><tt>*{num}{cols}</tt> - Equivalent to num copies of

                cols, where num is any positive integer and cols is any

                list of column-specifiers, which may contain another

                *-expression.
            </li>

        </ul>

</ul>


<ul>

    <li><tt>pos</tt> Specifies the vertical position of the whole

        tabular environment (recall that it is a

        <a href="ltx-143.html">box</a>). The default is to align

        the box on the center of the environment.

        <ul>

            <li><tt>t</tt> - align on top row</li>

            <li><tt>b</tt> - align on bottom row</li>

        </ul>
    </li>

</ul>


<ul>

    <li><tt>width</tt> Specifies the width of the tabular*

        environment. There must be rubber space between columns

        that can stretch to fill out the specified width.
    </li>

</ul>


<p>Note that <tt><a href="ltx-181.html">\\</a></tt> must be used

    to specify the end of each line of the table, except the last.

    (It must be used after the last line if an

    <tt><a href="ltx-239.html">\hline</a></tt> command is used to

    put a line at the bottom of the table.) </p>


<h3>Aligning on decimal points: an example of the @ specifier</h3>


<p>In scientific tables it is often desirable to align the

    columns on a decimal point. This can be done using the

    <tt>@</tt> <tt>col</tt> specifier and breaking the number into

    the integral part in a right-justified column and the fractional

    part in a left-justified column:</p>



<pre>

  The following input:          will display as:



  <tt>\begin{tabular}{r@{.}l}

      3&14159\\ 3.14159

      16&2\\ 16.2

      123$456\\ \end{tabular} 123.456 </tt>

</pre>


<p>Note that the decimal point is replaced by the column

    separator, <tt>&amp;</tt> and that the <tt>@</tt>suppresses the

    intercolumn space</p>


<h3>Another example: centering and controlling table width</h3>


<p> LaTeX normally sets the width of the tabular environment to

    "natural" width, i.e., determined from the contents of the

    columns. For narrow tables it is sometimes more pleasing to

    make them wider. The <tt>tabular*</tt> environments allows for

    setting a width; however, it is necessary to have rubber space

    between colunmns that can expand to the specified width. This

    can often be most easily accomplished by using an

    <tt>\extracolsep{wdth}</tt> command in an @ specifier as shown

    in the example below which sets the table width to 75% of the

    text width. </p>


<p>This example also centers the table.</p>



<pre>

  <tt><a href="ltx-29.html">\begin{center}</a> % put inside center environment

      \begin{tabular*}{0.75<a href="textwidth.html">\textwidth</a>}%

      {@{\extracolsep{<a href="ltx-238.html">\fill</a>}}cccr}

      label 1 &amp; label 2 &amp; label 3 &amp; label 4 \\

      <a href="ltx-239.html">\hline</a> % put a line under headers

      item 1 &amp; item 2 &amp; item 3 &amp; item 4 \\

      ...

      \end{tabular*}

      \end{center}</tt>

</pre>


<h3>See also</h3>


<ul>

    <li><tt><a href="ltx-214.html">\cline</a></tt></li>

    <li><tt><a href="ltx-239.html">\hline</a></tt></li>

    <li><tt><a href="ltx-268.html">\multicolumn</a></tt></li>

    <li><tt><a href="ltx-346.html">\vline</a></tt></li>

</ul>


<hr noshade="noshade" size="1">


<p>

    See also <a href="ltx-67.html">table environment</a>,

    <a href="ltx-202.html">array environment</a>,

    <a href="ltx-58.html">tabbing environment</a>.<br>

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